Top Asian News 3:44 a.m. GMT

Typhoon-ravaged northeast Philippines pummeled by new storm

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A typhoon swelled rivers and flooded low-lying areas as it passed over the storm-battered northeast Philippines, where rescuers were deployed early Thursday to help people flee the rising waters. The typhoon passed north of Manila between Bulacan and Pampanga provinces, toppling trees and knocking out power. Officials had said previously that nearly 200,000 people had been evacuated, some of them forcibly, from vulnerable coastal and low-lying areas. Rescue teams were deployed to flooded areas in Rizal province near the capital, Adm. George Ursabia, the coast guard chief, told DZBB radio. From the Rizal town of Rodriguez, resident Yolanda Laude called the radio station to ask to be rescued.

Hong Kong legislature opens; democracy bloc set to resign

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong's legislature opened Thursday ahead of the planned mass resignation of its pro-democracy bloc, one day after the government ousted four of its members. One of the pro-democracy lawmakers, Lam Cheuk-ting, unfurled a banner from a balcony of the legislative council building saying the city's leader Carrie Lam had brought disaster to Hong Kong and its people. The group had said they would hand in resignation letters on Thursday, but it was not immediately clear when they would do it or even what the proper procedure was. One said the removal of their four colleagues could sound the “death knell” for democracy in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory.

Recordings reveal WHO's analysis of pandemic in private

GENEVA (AP) — As the coronavirus explodes again, the World Health Organization finds itself both under intense pressure to reform and holding out hope that U.S. President-elect Joe Biden will reverse a decision by Washington to leave the health agency. With its annual meeting underway this week, WHO has been sharply criticized for not taking a stronger and more vocal role in handling the pandemic. For example, in private internal meetings in the early days of the virus, top scientists described some countries' approaches as “an unfortunate laboratory to study the virus” and a “macabre” opportunity to see what worked, recordings obtained by The Associated Press show.

Military-backed party rejects Myanmar election as unfair

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Myanmar's military-backed main opposition party said Wednesday that it is rejecting the results of last weekend's general election, citing unfairness. Unofficial results showed Tuesday that the ruling National League for Democracy party of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi won a majority of seats in Parliament, giving it a second five-year term in power. At a news conference Wednesday in Yangon, Myanmar's largest city, an official from the Union Solidarity and Development Party read a statement demanding that the Union Election Commission hold another vote, and work with the military so that the election can be free, fair and unbiased.

Police expose global child abuse ring centered in Australia

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A tip from U.S. authorities has exposed a major child sex abuse ring in Australia with links to the United States, Canada, Asia, Europe and New Zealand, police said on Wednesday. A childcare worker and a children’s soccer coach were among 16 men arrested in the Australian states of New South Wates, Queensland and Western Australia in recent months on 828 charges of sexually abusing children, producing and distributing child abuse material and bestiality, Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Justine Gough said. Investigators identified 46 victims in Australia aged 16 months to 15 years. “No child should be subjected to abuse and violence from the people they trust, whether that is a family member, a childcare worker or a soccer coach,” Gough said.

North Korea calls UN nuclear watchdog `a marionette' of West

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — North Korea called the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog “a marionette dancing to the tune” of hostile Western countries Wednesday, rejecting its information about the country's nuclear program as “grossly distorted” and based on “guesswork and fabrication.” North Korean Ambassador Kim Song delivered the rebuke at a U.N. General Assembly meeting where the International Atomic Energy Agency’s executive director, Rafael Grossi, called Pyongyang's nuclear activities “deeply regrettable" and “a clear violation” of Security Council resolutions. The IAEA has not had inspectors in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea -- North Korea’s official name -- since Pyongyang expelled them in 2009.

Japanese company busy making Joe Biden rubber masks

SAITAMA, Japan (AP) — While surgical masks have been highly sought after this year, Joe Biden rubber masks are also seeing some demand. Ogawa Studios, a Japanese manufacturer, began producing masks resembling the U.S. president-elect in the middle of October, ahead of last week's election. Workers in Saitama, a city north of Tokyo, mold rubber to form a likeness of Biden's face, while features including his pearly white teeth and blue eyes are hand-painted. “Biden’s keywords are dialogue and healing, so we created it with the image of a gentle expression,” said Kouki Takahashi, from the administration department of Ogawa Studios.

Chinese farmer who praised lawyers amid crackdown arrested

BEIJING (AP) — A prominent Chinese pig farmer who has publicly praised the work of lawyers who help the public amid a crackdown on legal activists by President Xi Jinping’s government was subjected this week to unspecified “coercive measures,” according to police, a term that usually means detention. Sun Dawu, chairman of Hebei Dawu Agriculture Group, is among suspects accused of “provoking quarrels and disrupting production,” the police department of Baoding, southwest of Beijing, said on its social media account. It gave no details. A Baoding police employee who would give only her surname, Du, declined to give more information. “Coercive measures” can include detention, house arrest or release on bail with restrictions on movement.

Teen's mom: Daughter, found dead in Malaysia, was abducted

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — The mother of an Irish-French teen whose body was found last year near a Malaysian jungle resort where she vanished while on vacation said Wednesday that evidence may have been lost because police were slow to act on the possibility that her daughter could have been abducted. Meabh Quoirin told an inquest into her 15-year-old daughter's death that she believed she heard “muffled and whispering” sounds of two people inside the family's cottage the morning Nora Anne Quoirin disappeared, but that she took no action because she was asleep and not fully conscious at the time.

US Embassy in Pakistan apologizes over political retweet

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The U.S. Embassy in Pakistan on Wednesday apologized for retweeting an anti-government statement from an opposition leader who suggested Prime Minister Imran Khan would fall from power in the wake of President Donald Trump's election defeat. “We have one in Pakistan too. He will be shown the way out soon," the Tuesday tweet by opposition lawmaker Ahsan Iqbal said, without naming Khan directly. The comment was retweeted Tuesday on the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad's account. In its tweet on Wednesday, the embassy said its Twitter account had been accessed without authorization. “The U.S. Embassy does not endorse the posting or retweeting of political messages.